Kiss Me in the Dark Anthology - Monica James Page 0,134

just before that, her mother, and her baby brother.”

“Exactly,” Joshua says smoothly. “Your father and Enzo were worried about the family bloodline continuing after such losses. Don’t forget, I was not a decision-maker in that process. I was told, same as you’ve just been told.”

I blink, the alcohol hitting me, making me dizzy for a second. I wait for Joshua to fill in the silence, but he doesn’t. Awkward silences are his specialty.

“I get it,” Joshua finally breaks the silence, brushing imaginary lint from my shoulder. “This marriage is a choice for me. It’s not for you.”

There are no choices for me.

“I won’t make any of this easy,” I vow, leaning away from him.

“Avery, I’ve known you your whole life,” Joshua says, smiling fondly, sending shivers of dread up my spine. “You don’t make anything easy.”

“Ugh,” I make a gagging sound. “I have to go.”

“Where?”

For an eternal swim. Part of me wants to drown myself like my sister did, just to spite him.

“Why?” I say slowly. “You want to come?”

“I always want to come when you’re concerned.”

Did he really just say that? He’s smirking. Of course he just said that.

“I’m going to the family mausoleum,” I clarify. “You still feel like you want to come?”

His smirk disappears.

“That’s what I thought,” I continue. “I’m going to confession, and then to pay my respects to my sister. Remember her?”

“You go to confession a lot,” Joshua says, dodging my jibe. He grabs my elbow as I make a move to walk away. I look at his hand like it’s a dirty cockroach, before meeting his gaze. “Maybe I have a lot of things to confess,” I say smoothly.

“You won’t have to visit your little boyfriend in a dirty old graveyard once we’re married,” he says, squeezing my arm tighter. “Hell, I’ll build you both your own wing when you move in to my house. You’ll need somebody to spend all those lonely nights with while I’m here, working.”

“How generous of you,” I say. “Make sure it’s far, far away from wherever you’ll be fucking your mistress.”

He tips his head back and laughs, tugging me into him suddenly and whispering in my ear. “Avery, there’s only one woman I’ll be fucking. My wife.”

I shove him forcefully, finally breaking free of his grip. “Don’t touch me again,” I warn him, backing away. “I’m not yours yet, Joshua.”

“Happy birthday,” he calls down the hallway, as I retreat. “Next year I’ll arrange a proper celebration. Maybe we’ll have our wedding ceremony on your twenty-sixth birthday. Hell, maybe you’ll already be knocked up with my baby by then. Wait, sorry. Our baby.”

He’s lucky he’s not within striking distance when he says that.

Avery

I have my driver take me home, through city traffic and up to Verona, where we have to pass through two security checkpoints to make it onto the gated part inside the gated community where all the billionaires park their helicopters and store their supermodel wives.

I run through the foyer, across marble floors, taking the sweeping mahogany staircase two steps at a time. In my bedroom, I strip as fast as I can, my outfit suffocating me. I throw my clothes in the corner, vowing to burn them after Joshua touched me while I was wearing them. I stand in the middle of my walk-in closet, hands on my hips, wearing only my bra and panties as I scan racks upon racks of clothes for an appropriate outfit to wear to confession.

“Where have you been?” A voice comes from the bathroom attached to the other end of the walk-in-wardrobe. I don’t bother covering up. You’d see more of me in a bikini.

“Out,” I reply, not looking at my cousin as he saunters into the closet that separates our bedrooms.

“In that?” Nathan asks, smoking a joint as he leans against the doorframe, dressed in a black shirt and jeans. “I know you don’t get access to your trust fund until tonight, but are you really so hard up that you’re hooking on a Tuesday afternoon?”

I give him daggers. “Are you really so disinterested in working for our family’s company that you’re getting stoned on a Tuesday afternoon?” I take three steps toward him, plucking the joint out of his fingers and placing it between my lips, sucking deeply. The smoke snakes into my lungs, and I hold it there as long as I can before puffing it out. I place the joint back in his hand, staring into eyes that match mine. We both have these eyes that